You gotta have goals. Long term, short term, midterm, it is always best to have something to aim for. Not to get into deeper life lessons here, I will specifically apply this concept to a card collection. Your collection can get out of hand real quick, both in terms of size and scope, if you don't know what you are trying to accomplish with it. I have narrowed my collection in recent years to a very personal group of criteria. But not everyone wants to narrow their collections down. Some people want to expand and grow. I respect that. I envy that, in a way.
There is one collector who has a vision I think we all should envy. We all have favorite teams and players that we like to collect en masse. This collector I am speaking of is a fan of Tim Wallach, former third baseman for the Expos and Dodgers. He has a simple goal: collect all his cards. And I don't mean one of each of his cards, I mean ALL his cards. There is a fine line between madness and genius, I believe J Corey Stackhouse straddles this line perfectly.
After finding his blog and immediately embracing his audacity, I sent him an email praising his insanity and promised him I would comb my collection for every Tim Wallach card I could find. While I only found 14 of them, it was a nice mix of rookies and oddballs and Stackhouse reciprocated by sending me a nice selection of Mets and Saints cards:
I mean, how can you go wrong with a shiny David Wright and a vintage Gil Hodges? Short answer: you can't. And the hit parade continues with more shiny of Mike Pelfrey (that is a refractor, trust me) and Lucas Duda. I really should collect the entire Mets set of those 2011 Topps Diamond cards. They bring shiny to a whole new level. Also here are some nouveau Gary Carters and Tom Seavers - a couple nice additions to two of my favorite players to collect (though I couldn't dream of collection all of their cards). Plus, I love vague Mets stickers and that Panini is one I do not have. Sweet.
Wait, there is more:
Stackhouse said he was going to come up with some of my Rookie Cup needs, but he only found one. One is always enough if you don't have it. There are a couple more oblong Mets inserts there that I am not sure if I have, but will go in the team book regardless. Rounding out the package were some recent Saints cards that I did not yet have. I didn't even know Topps did an Attax for football. The caption on the Marques Colston insert is "Ringmaster of Offensive Circus" OK, sure.
I will now implore all my readers: please check out Stackhouse's blog. Please search your collections and help him with his goal. His chutzpah alone should be an inspiration to us all. You gotta have goals, even if they are crazy. Nothing is impossible. Thanks, Corey!
I'm sad that I don't have any more Wallachs to send him.
ReplyDeleteI have a Tim Wallach card. If he wants it he'll have to pay for it
ReplyDelete